Hubble finds possible crater of fresh ice on space rock8405 Asbolus, a 48-mile-wide (80-kilometer) chunk of ice and dust that lies between Saturn and Uranus, looks like it has a fresh crater less than 10 million years old, exposing underlying ice that is apparently unlike any yet seen. Donald W. McCarthy of the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson speculated that "the event that caused the impact crater on 8405 Asbolus also knocked it out of the Kuiper belt." By latest count, scientists have discovered a total of 21 Centaurs, which are dim, small bodies, which are icy like comet nuclei. These objects are considered escapees from a vast reservoir of comets, the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto. The Centaurs' orbits were perturbed into the region between the orbits of Neptune and Jupiter.
Spaceflight Now
September 14, 2000
